


The Peace of Love

by Mezo_Phane



Series: The Peace of Love [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Armitage Hux Has Feelings, Armitage Hux Lives, Armitage Hux Needs A Hug, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, F/M, Not Canon Compliant, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Rose Tico Deserved Better, So we’re giving her a happy ending, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:08:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28728657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mezo_Phane/pseuds/Mezo_Phane
Summary: Armitage Hux, erstwhile General of the First Order, now Chief Technology Developer for the New Republic, (along with his wife) reflects upon his past and his present during a quiet morning.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Rose Tico
Series: The Peace of Love [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2106060
Kudos: 22





	The Peace of Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ElfMaidenOfLight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElfMaidenOfLight/gifts).



> I wrote this a while back on my tumblr for a fantastic tumblr mutual of mine, Lena of @girl-among-mts, ElfMaidenOfLight on AO3, and I thought that I’d post it to my AO3.

This is for Lena of @girl-among-mts, who has been a great help to me in my fic and a fantastic mutual! Go check out her tumblr for her awesomeness and information about her fics! I highly recommend you check out her current fic, “Flashes of Light” for some amazing Armitage Hux/Rose Tico fluff. Thank you for feeding my need for Gingerrose fic, Lena! And before I forget, Lena, there’s two parts in this fic in which I paid homage to your beautiful Day 4 of Summer Gingerrosefest 2020 fic!

And to my dear Gingerrose writers, if there is any similarity in this to any of your works, I swear, it was totally unintentional, this just flowed out of me at an unholy hour of the day.

This is slice-of-life, shamelessly indulgent fic, with the fluff up to 11.This is Fluff Without Plot.So, without further ado, I give you…

* * *

_** The Peace of Love ** _

It was early morning, and as usual, Armitage was up at his upstairs work table, magnifiying glasses on his head, as he fiddled with the central computer of an X-Wing — Dameron’s X-Wing, to be exact.He had just made some adjustments which would make the starfighter more agile, especially when the Resistance General was doing reckless manuvers such as dives and rolls when he heard a loud yawn from the bedroom.Ah. 

He took the magnifying glasses off and switched them out for the tortoiseshell-rimmed pair in his shirt pocket, (which he sadly had begun to need more and more often) as he stood and adjusted his thick-yarned knit cardigan.Going to the kitchen, he took the breakfast he had prepared, and placed them on the tray, which he carefully took to the bedroom. 

“Good morning, my flower,” he murmured to his smiling wife, Rose.

“Good morning, Armie.How long have you been up?”She concernedly asked, since she was a deep sleeper and he tended to wake at the drop of a pin, which, combined with his insomnia and too-ingrained-to-change habit of waking early, he sometimes didn’t get nearly enough sleep.

“The usual, don’t worry.I slept well, my dear.”He set the tray down on his made side of the bed, and sat so the tray was between them.Rose immediately snatched up one of the slices of toast.A smile curled his lips as she moaned at the taste of the butter spread on the toast.She was about to scarf down the last slice when she said, “Have you eaten already?”

“Yes, I had breakfast earlier.Go ahead.”

Rose made quick work of the meal and he was about to pick the tray up and take it back to the kitchen when she extended her hand towards him.“Come rest with me for a while.”

This was odd for her.Usually, Rose liked to get up after breakfast, being as hard-working as he was.“You’re not getting up yet?”He cautiously asked.

“Not just yet.”She widened her eyes and slightly pouted her lower lip, a look that never failed to get under his skin.“Come on, I know you want to go back to what you’re doing, but, just indulge me, Armie?Please?”

He had lost already, had lost from the moment he had fallen in love with this magnificent woman over two and a half years ago, but it behooved him to put up at least the appearance of a fight. 

“Fine,” he sighed, putting the tray on the floor, before removing his shoes and cardigan, and climbing into his side of their bed.

“Happy now?”He softly asked as he took her into his arms.

“Very,” she grinned, adjusting herself in his embrace.

They were silent, as they just laid there, but his mind was as loud as ever, if not louder.

How?How had he come upon this fortune?He was a mass murderer.He had killed billions when he ordered that Starkiller be fired.He had killed his own father.He had ripped countless numbers of children from their mother’s breasts to turn them into mindless drones.He had contributed to, if not directly had a hand in, the destruction of numerous planets, Rose’s included.And yet, this woman, this brilliant, beautiful woman had chosen to spend the rest of her life with him.

In no way, shape, or form, did he deserve even the slightest ounce of compassion from Rose, let alone her love.He deserved death, an ignominious death, at either the hands of the First Order for his treason, or at the hands of the Resistance for his crimes.Despite all this, Rose bothered to get to know him even when he was just a string of letters communicating with her from across the galaxy, feeding her First Order secrets.And when, unable to resist the first stirrings of emotion in his long cold, dead heart, he told her his name, she had been shocked, yes, but she had not launched into the tirade of vitriol he had been expecting.

Eventually, their relationship had evolved from mere spy-handler to genuine, if not tentative, friendship.And when Poe and Finn exfiltrated him from the Steadfast, he was greeted by a black-haired blur careening into him, barely managing to keep himself upright from the blaster wound in his leg.“Sunset Crown, you’re alive,” she whispered.

“Midnight Blossom.Alive, if not a little worse for wear.”

“You can call me Rose now, you know.”

“Ah.Well… call me Armitage then… Rose.”

After, following the agreement which tied him to the backwater planet of Tareth to develop all further technology for the New Republic ‘til the end of his days, which was far more than he ever hoped to get, fully expecting that he would be hurled into a deep, dark hole, never to see the light of day again, no one was more surprised than he to see Rose waiting for him outside the ship that would take him to his glorified exile. 

“Rose.I suppose you’ve come to see me off.”

“No, dummy.I’m coming with you.”

He was doing a fairly impeccable impression of a fish in that moment, he was certain.The only word that came out of his mouth at her declaration, was a “What?” which squeaked out of his throat at a higher octave than usual for him.

“I’m coming with you.”

Recovering, he replied, “I heard you the first time.What I’d like to know is: whatever for?”

“Because I want to.Someone has to help you get established on Tareth.Might as well be someone who li-tolerates you.Unless you don’t want me to come?”She defiantly tilted her head, vaguely reminding him of their first meeting. 

He wanted to tell her yes, he didn’t want her to come, he wanted to tell her to leave now, to run as far away as possible from him, to forget him, to never think about him again.But he found he couldn’t.She was like a sun, you see, and he the helpless, but all too willing planet caught in her orbit, blessed to have the rays of her light shine upon him.And a not-small part of him wanted to keep that light, her light in his life for as long as possible. 

It wouldn’t be so bad, he convinced himself.Her friendship was all he would ever need.It was more than he ever deserved, and he would be content with that.It was enough.It would have to be.And he’d let her go, he swore to himself, if she ever gave the slightest hint that she wanted to leave.He’d no more wish to tie her to him than he would wish to hurt her.

Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, and months turned into half a year before he knew it.And in that span of time, his heart, his traitorous heart, became increasingly, inexorably tied to Rose more and more, with each passing day, until he was convinced that she would be able to hear his heart screaming for hers.

It all came to a head when he arrived at his small house after running errands, to find a delicious smelling dinner spread on his dining table, Rose in a dress as red as her namesake, ebony hair spilling over her shoulders.His breath caught in his throat, and he had to swallow several times before he was reasonably sure a logical sentence would come from his mouth.

“This looks amazing, Rose — it smells delicious.”

Her smile lit up the room.“Let’s eat it then.”

They both sat and ate, conversation flowing freely.He was listening to Rose talk about how she had just been reading a starfighter engine repair manual that had been absolutely revelatory when he internally voiced the thought which he had never vocalized, ever.“I love you,” he mentally said. Or so he thought.

Her head snapped up from where it had been briefly looking at her plate, and she dropped her fork.“What?”She breathed, wide-eyed.

No.No, no, no, no, no.He had said it out loud!He couldn’t decipher the look on Rose’s face — overcome with shame, fear, and self-hatred, he did the only thing he could think to do: he ran.

He bolted out the door, and before he knew it, he was standing beside the bench in the woods he had placed there when he needed to get away from everything — his thinking bench, as Rose called it.

“Idiot, idiot, idiot, what were you thinking?!How could you say that?!Why did you say that?!She’s going to leave now, you’ll never see her again!!” 

He sank onto the bench, his head in his hands, thoughts swirling.

“Idiot, idiot, idiot,” he muttered, once more after a few minutes, shaking his head in his hands.

it was a testament to how off-kilter he was that he didn’t hear Rose coming.

“You’re not an idiot, Armitage, far from it in fact,” she said, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder as she knelt on the ground before him.

“I know the quality of my mind, Miss Tico, I merely refer to words I should not have said.And for the love of God, I beg you, get up,” he murmured, something in the night air making him speak softly.

“Why?”

“Because I never want to see you kneeling before me ever again, Rose!”He said, his voice beginning to rise. 

An understanding look came into her eyes, and once she moved to sit beside him on the bench, he continued in a quieter voice, “I’m sorry, Rose.I… should not have said what I did.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for, Armitage… unless you didn’t mean what you said in the house.”

His head shot up to look her in the eye.

“Did you mean it, Armitage?Tell me.”

“I…”

“Tell me!”

“I meant it!I meant it.God, I meant it,” he passionately said.

A smile brighter than any he had ever seen on her face parted her lips.“Good.Because that’s what I’ve wanted to hear from you for months now.”

“What?”It seemed to be his go-to word when he did not know what to say, apparently.

“I said, that’s good.Because I love you too.”

“You — you shouldn’t, Rose.”

“I’ve never been good when it comes to people telling me what I should do.”

“I — I’m a criminal, a murderer,it — it is ill-advised to care for me, let alone love me.”

“But I do.Why do you love  me ?”

“Because… of you, everything you are, your incorrigible spirit, your kind heart, your brilliant mind, your captivating beauty, everything.And I could not stop myself from loving you, no matter how I tried.”

“It’s the same for me, Armitage.I couldn’t stop myself either.And I don’t want to.Let me love you.Please.”

He looked at her long and hard, searching for some sort of deception, even as he knew she was incapable of it. 

“I…” he began.“I cannot find it in me… to refuse you,” he murmured, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.

At this, she rushed into his arms, both immediately embracing the other.Eventually, she pulled back, a somewhat expectant look on her face.he had no idea what it was she wanted until her glance darted to his lips.Ah.A curious mix of excitement and apprehension surged through him.“M-may I — ”

“Do it, before I do it for you,” she grinned.

Plucking up what courage he had, he threaded his hand through the black silk of her hair as he slowly leaned in, giving her every opportunity to back out.Then his lips met hers, and if his heart had not already been irrevocably hers, it would have been in this moment.He kissed her softly, gently, and yet passionately.He could have spent eternity drinking of her lips.When they parted, breathless, Rose reached up to brush away tears he had not realized he had cried.

“I do not deserve you, Rose.”

“You have me anyway,” she softly smiled.

Before he knew it, he was standing before the holy man of their town and exchanging vows and rings.He’d never forget that day.He was there in his best shirt and sweater, when she walked in, in a simple, but elegant white dress, a bouquet of white roses in her hands. 

Now pulled back to the present, he looked down at their hands, his ring of Haysian smelt glowing in the morning sun.It tugged at his heart in odd way sometimes to see the ring on his finger.He often felt she shouldn’t have given this to him, something rare and this precious from her homeworld that he had helped to ruin.But she always said that he was as precious to her as this metal was to her people, if not more so, and that he should think of it that way.And if it made him feel better, that he should think of it as a reminder to himself that he was different now, that he was sorry for his actions as the intractable General Hux.And oh, how he was sorry.

As the familiar self-hatred washed over him, he laced her left hand in his, raising it to his lips.She shifted to look up at him, sensing the change in his mood.“You okay?”

He ducked his head, staring at her silver ring, stamped with Arkanisian knots, considering his words.

Rose let him be, knowing that he’d reply in his own time.Eventually, he spoke.“No.But I have you, so I will be.”

Smirking, she placed a finger under his chin, gently raising his head so he looked at her.“I love you, Armitage Hux, with all my heart and all of me.”

“I love you too, Rose Tico-Hux, with all of my being, such as it is.”

She only smiled and leaned in to place a searing kiss upon his lips, chasing away any thought other than that of his beloved wife in his arms.

When air became a necessity, and they drew back, after they caught their breath, Rose straightened his glasses and murmured, “We should probably get up now.”

“Yes… we should.But let’s stay here for a little longer.”

“Okay.”

_** The End ** _

**Author's Note:**

> Please read & review!


End file.
